Incindre: You cannot in any situation accept a verbal quote. It's not a quote at all, it's just some speculation. If it's not written down they can deny they ever said it quite happily.

Always ask for a written (and dated) quote, and always accept while the quote is still current, if you accept afterwards they can just say that the price went up after that period.

They did write it down in their own book, so there was still a record of it. Just that I didn't get that myself. Although in contract law, verbal quotes should be as enforcable as written ones, and neither party would have a written record to dispute it with. But it is all resolved now, just waiting for the code of compliance to be issued, as the overall franchise are trying to located the original person who did the work, to issue it. Just a real hassle to deal with companies that go into liquidation.

Well if you had been able to record the verbal quote then it would be quite hard to dispute, but I guess you don't expect to have to prove anything before the job starts...

Qualified in business, certified in fibre, stuck in copper, have to keep going ^_^